Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Green church paint and a time that is gone

The back stairwell of our church suffers from a water problem. A light layer of mildew fights to gain the upper hand over the paint, which is itself peeling in patches. This is a problem for the trustees. As I left the library a few weeks ago and skipped lightly down the stairs, I noticed that the original green paint now showed through in certain areas.

Ah, the green paint. Put on when the church was renovated in the 1950s, it is the church color of my childhood. Nor was our church the only one to use it. At times, it seemed as if half the conference had decided to embrace that pale, yet strangely vivid, shade of green.

This was the 50's, after all, the decade of pastels. There are still pink and blue tiled bathrooms dotting the landscape. (At the time, it must have seemed a delightful change after years of WWII army drab).

I go to the same church I attended as a child, and though the outside is still brick, almost everything else has changed. The entrances were even flipped around in the 1994 renovation.

1 comment:

Was the entrance flip another style? Apparently my church did that, too, thirty-odd years ago. And yes, the church of my childhood was the same green (Pious Pistachio?). I look forward to the continuation, and in the meantime, will try not to envy your light skipping down the steps!